The 2018 Sire Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Houyi Vineyard is a small-production, single-vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet sourced from Houyi Vineyard on Pritchard Hill in the Vaca Mountains. It’s 100% Cabernet Sauvignon (Clone 4) from Blocks 6 and 7, made by winemaker Julien Fayard. The wine was aged for 22 months in new French oak and bottled at 15.30% ABV, with a reported production of just 227 cases (10 barrels).

In the glass, the wine is consistently described as dark-fruited and firmly structured, with the site’s rocky, mountain character front and center. Joe Czerwinski of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate (93 points) highlights a mineral and savory edge alongside classic Cabernet markers, noting “scents of crushed stone, pencil shavings, cassis, black cherries and dark chocolate.” He calls it “full-bodied… marked by velvety tannins and a fine sense of balance,” adding that while it’s “approachable now,” it “should still be drinking well a decade or more hence.”

Antonio Galloni of Vinous delivers the strongest appraisal and an excellent review at 95 points, calling it “a potent, explosive wine” with “all the character that makes this hillside site… so distinctive.” Galloni points to a deep, oak-and-spice-inflected spectrum—“graphite, licorice, mocha, chocolate, clove and blackberry jam”—and emphasizes that it “needs time (or a good decant) to soften,” ultimately concluding, “This is a tremendous showing.”

James Suckling rates it 91 points, focusing on immediate appeal and texture: “crushed blackcurrants and blueberries” with “hints of mint, dried flowers and licorice,” followed by a “soft and rich” palate with “plush tannins.” He notes a “warming sensation” on the finish and finds it “a little heavy,” recommending, “Try in 2023.”

Taken together, the 2018 reads as a concentrated, mountain-grown Cabernet built around dark fruit, graphite-tinged detail, and tannin-driven structure—impressive now with air, and well-suited to cellaring.